


Death of a Mortal

by LediShae



Category: Brave Police J-Decker
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-05-24
Updated: 2016-08-09
Packaged: 2017-12-12 19:37:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 13,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/815245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LediShae/pseuds/LediShae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When facing a robot that can be repaired it is easy to forget just how fragile humans are. Yuuta, now a cop and all grown up, must ask a hard question of himself: What happens to Deckerd and the others when he dies?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Watashi

“ _Yuuta!”_ Voices call out to me, beckoning me to return. So many voices I’ve known for so long, all standing behind me as I grew. I hear them now, in this dark nothingness that surrounds me. Slowly, something catches my attention; maybe it is my sisters coming to wake me when I have slept for too long. The thought fills me with warmth, but something feels off. No, that can’t be right. I was – _pain, fear, nothingness_ – I was shot.

Now I recognize the noise that draws my attention. It is the obnoxious, constant beeping I cannot ignore. It is near and distant, like traffic through a thick window. The repetitive noise is something that seems oddly familiar, that has been there the whole time I wondered in this dark void. I wonder why I didn’t notice it before. My thoughts slips away, what was I thinking again? I don’t remember. What should I be thinking? It can’t be important – I was shot, I remember now. 

Is this my death? It is cold, my throat has closed. I cannot open my eyes and I only feel coldness about me. Is this how we die? Is this the way to the underworld where we wait before our Buddhist purification in death? I do not know, perhaps maybe I’ll just spend the time before my cleansing in remembrance. Yes, that sounds good. Maybe then I can forget the cold.

 

“ _Jeeze, what is this place?” Young Yuuta asked as he walked into the secret room found by the towering yellow robot, McCrane, behind a bio-research facility on the far outskirts of Nanamagari City. The nine-year-old boy walked between the feet of several massive robots that were his best friends and, humorously, his underlings into the dark, chilled room. There, lying in wait in a frozen capsule lay something out of history –_ Gawan _the man made dinosaur._

_His breath misted, and shivering, he huddled into himself wishing he had more than his long yellow t-shirt and blue jeans for warmth. He wanted to stand close to his friends as he would his sisters, but he knew their metal bodies got cold faster than his did._

That experience taught me how much I hated the cold, especially if it was not winter. It’s not winter, right? Could it be snowing? No – I heard cicadas when the shot hit me. Yes, it was hot out, a record breaker.

“ _Yuuta!” Deckerd called looking worriedly for his ‘boss’, the boy who had given him his heart. The school had lined up for a fire drill, but the boy was not with his class. Worried Deckerd and Power Joe scoured the campus finding Yuuta facing an assassin bot. The boy stood unarmed in the gymnasium, tear stained and terrified yet still the boy managed to run – and survive._

They saved me then. Why didn’t they save me now?

“ _An officer of the law does not cry to be saved! Yuuta! There are no tears, no whining in the force. You do what is needed,_ whatever _is needed.” Sergeant Yamamoto raged as he pushed the recent high school grad through training. The boy had been given a blessing, on the job training for eight years while he finished school. Now, just graduated and facing obstacles he had never expected Yuuta found himself exhausted and alone, especially when he was scared._

I had followed my training. Others were in danger and I had to do whatever it took to keep the city safe. This time that meant using myself as bait without telling the others. Without telling the very beings that were best suited to keeping me alive. My sisters would say it was a selfless act. I’m not sure.

“ _Boss!” The assorted robots of the Brave Police force stood and grinned as Yuuta entered their gargantuan sized headquarters filled with bot-sized desks and chairs. Before them stood the fully grown Yuuta, now nineteen and fresh out of basic police training. He stood taller than ever, and his new short haircut made him suddenly mature. To the last the Brave Police squad was proud of Boss._

“ _You look great!” Power Joe cheered, dimming his optic roguishly and earning a self-conscious blush from the young human. Yuuta finally dropped his stiff attention stance and grinned up at his friends, his lean face dimpling with his enthusiasm._

“ _Thanks guys! My basic training is complete so I can resume taking cases with you. Now, I have my own gun and bullet proof vest.” Yuuta tapped his chest proudly, letting his robot friends hear the heavy padding beneath his touch. Despite his glowing pride, Yuuta had kept quiet about his assurances to his commanders that he would never distract the robots from their duties if he could handle the situation on his own._

That worked out _great_ I got shot below the vest and in the shoulder just beside it. I know whatever happened was messy. I should have died instantly. Didn’t I?

 

“Yuuta!” I feel pain, groggy and achy and somewhere between exhausted and sick. I hate this feeling already. My eyes, how can eyes be so heavy? When they finally crack open enough I can see my sisters leaning over me. Azuki and Kurumi have both come home. Azuki, is still glowing after her marriage to Kashiwazaki and Kurumi is dressed in a sequin encrusted dress that shines like diamonds. 

I pause as I take in the flamboyant yet almost revealing dress on my middle sister. “Did I miss the release?” My voice comes out so scratchy I can barely recognize it, but my sisters, after years of raising me and seeing me half asleep have no such trouble.

“They called me just afterwards. I came straight here. Oh, Yuuta,” She presses her face into her hands with new delicacy, ensuring the makeup she wears for her first movie release as the starring actress somehow manages not to smear with her tears. “What were you _thinking_!” She suddenly screeches, making my ears ring and adding to the already overwhelming num ache I feel all over.

I flinch, I had expected praise for my bravery, remorse for my selflessness, but I had never expected to get yelled at. “My job.” I rasp back, and realize that I have snapped at them as their eyes blaze warningly at me. Despite facing criminals, aliens and giant monsters, I am more terrified of my sisters now than I was ever of any challenge I have faced ever before.

“No,” Azuki broke in fiercely holding the wrath only eldest sisters could claim. They were scary, sisters, when they’re mad. “Your job is to protect the people, stop threats that could harm them, and _to let your partners know when you’re going to do something stupid!_ ”

I gaped; Azuki never raises her voice. She has always been accused of being too soft, and kind hearted. “But,” I try to protest yet no words come out of my moving lips. I’ve rarely been completely speechless, but now I am. The meds I’m on are making me lightheaded, I can’t breathe. Whatever this feeling is I don’t like it.

Then the tears fall and for the first time in eleven years I cry. I had forgotten the stinging that comes to the eyes and the tightness in the throat that feels as if you’re being suffocated. It has been so long since I last cried, more than half my lifetime ago. Now that I am bawling my eyes out like a little child I realize I had been dumb. I was told never to cry, never to beg to be saved, but I had gone against my training to always keep my partners involved and informed of my actions.

I could have spoken to Deckerd over the radio that I had a way to play the scared rabbit. I should have told my superiors I intended to use myself as bait, to have the others fire on the perps. Now, now my sisters are holding me close like when I was a kid as I sob into their shoulders. They have always been there for me. Despite being much taller than either of them they still make me feel like a child, and right now I’m grateful to be comforted so. To once more be the little brother I had to stop being when I became Boss to the Bots.

All too soon the doctors come in, overlook my tearstained face and check me over. I was lucky they say, it could have been much worse they say. Somehow the bullets had passed right through me hitting fleshy areas free of major nerves, blood vessels or arteries. I was saved from bone fragments hitting internal organs or bullet fragments piercing something vital.

“Young man, this could have been much worse,” the doctor intones heavily raising his hand as I move to speak, “I do not mean you could have died. There _are_ worse things than death.” He locks eyes with me and I shudder at the horrors hidden behind his eyes. Horrors tinged with regret and pity. “One of them being paralyzed completely, or losing your mental functions to be a healthy, vibrant body with a vegetative mind, or perhaps worst of all to have your perfectly functioning mind trapped in a motionless body. You are lucky, you will recover. You will need physical therapy to regain your full strength, but you will recover. You are not a robot like your unit, you cannot be replaced, piece by piece and come out whole.”

I swallow thickly as he speaks, remembering all the times I had been saved, all the injuries others had taken and how easily the Brave Police were repaired when legs or internal components were damaged.   
“I know, and I am grateful.”

The doctor nods, then leaves the room, leading my sisters away to speak in private. Being alone in this white room with my mind here, in the present I realize that I am scared. I want Deckerd. I want Power Joe and all the others here towering over me, letting me know with their humming electrical systems and buzzing hydraulics that they will keep me from harm. 

Another thought hits me, suddenly making me chill further from merely chilled to thoroughly frozen to the pit of my soul: What will happen to the Brave Police when I die? They can be kept alive so long as their core systems remain functioning – theoretically those can even be swapped to completely different bodies, their power cores even being replaceable as long as they are on the proper support equipment during the procedure. This time I will live, but what about next time? 

My mind wanders, I am tired but too afraid to let myself sleep. A year ago a fellow police recruit had been hit by a car, he had died instantly. I had been sad, then, thinking that I would never see him again. Now, though I am terrified. I could die crossing the street, going for a swim, get trampled during an earthquake or washed away by the many hurricanes and tsunami that hit Japan. When I die, what will happen to my friends? Who will step in when I am no longer there? Will they be shut down? Terminated? Will they be frozen like Gawan had been in capsules of ice? Would they be resurrected centuries in the future? Or left frozen waiting, in uncertain silence for all eternity?

The thoughts keep my mind reeling, making me tremble further while the machine next to me begins chiming in alarm as my heart races and panic makes breathing next to impossible. I ignore the machine, uncaring of its cries. It was just a machine, but my friends were living robots with only me and the Superintendent General to speak for them. _Should I die before I wake…_

The old prayer I had heard from too many American movies runs through my mind filled with a dire promise chilling me further still. Should I lie back down to sleep would I die before I wake? Suddenly dizziness envelopes me, I realize I’m gasping for air as nurses rush into the room, all speaking loudly and calling for a doctor. I want to say I’m fine, that I was just scared for a moment but I still cannot breath and the world begins to go grey. The sound of popcorn popping fills my ears and pockets of blackness fill my vision with its sound. Black popcorn that eats the world, the mental image almost makes me giggle, maybe it does –

 

“What happened?” Azuki asked with tear filled eyes as doctors and nurses surrounded her brother’s pale, still body once more unconscious.

“He had an anxiety attack; it is common for those with such trauma to suffer shortly after regaining consciousness.” Doctor Yamazuki spoke gently as he kept an eye on the siblings. “He will need to be with others more than usual, and do not leave him alone when he returns home.”

“But, he doesn’t live at home anymore!” Azuki sobbed, “He lives in police housing with the Brave Police.”

“Then he will need to be welcomed home for a while. The police have enough to take care of without tending your brother’s recovery.” Warm brown eyes watched the sisters kindly, hoping he could make the mismatched pair see that this was in their little brother’s best interests.

“We understand,” Kurumi replied, stepping up when her elder sister began to hiccup from the worry and tears. “I will come home too, that way you will not be alone Azuki.” The shorter of the sisters nodded softly as she hiccupped and wept wishing her husband was with her.

“Very well. Yuuta will need to remain here for a few more days before he can go home. His injuries did not cause an overt amount of damage, but he still is in a delicate position. Too much movement can reopen his wounds.” Once more the sisters nodded then slowly left the room entrusting the doctors and medical staff with their little brother.

 

It’s cold again. Once more the first thing I remember is Gawan, but I come back to myself more readily than when I first woke up. Now, though I wonder what had happened. I know I blacked out but I cannot remember why. I move to shrug and realize it’s not a good idea as agony rips through me, making me whimper.

“Good, you are awake.” A warm voice reaches my ears, I open my eyes from the pain and look at the speaker noticing my room for the first time and the older man who looks like a doctor. I want to believe that he is, but too many events with the brave police have taught me not to judge a person by their appearances.

“Yes, doctor.” I reply casting my eyes over the white room with its empty white beds and white machinery lying in wait to be of use. I see the white privacy curtains and the doctor’s white coat, white clipboard with white paper and suddenly wonder if I am going mad from the lack of color in the room.

“I am Doctor Yamazuki, do you know where you are? Or your name?” I look at him for a moment in utter confusion before I remember one of my training courses had mentioned memory loss when a victim suffers a traumatic experience. It is humbling to realize that in this situation I am that victim.

“Yes doctor, I am in a hospital, but I’m not sure which one. I am Officer Tomonaga Yuuta, first year graduate of the police academy, Boss of the Brave Police squad. I have two older sisters, Azuki recently was married and Kurumi just had her first movie released.” I fill in with a small smile for my sisters. They are happy in their lives, and I am happy for them. I hope someday soon I will become an uncle.

“Very good, now, do you know why you are in the hospital?” Doctor Yamazuki asks me as he shines a light in my eyes that stings and makes them water. I want to blink and squirm away but it would not be polite, besides, I remind myself, he’s just doing his job.

“I was doing my job stupidly.” I reply with a rasping huff of exasperation for my own idiocy. “I was making myself bait to lure several criminals from a heavily populated area so my partners could focus on rescuing the civilians. It might have been a good idea but I failed to inform them and got shot – repeatedly.”

“I am pleased to hear your memory is fully intact, and to know you will live to learn from your mistake. However, do not be too hard on yourself. I actually must thank you. My daughter was at the university when the Nobunaga gang attacked. She was nearly crushed by debris when they fired on the main building. If not for you and the Brave Police she would be dead.” 

I look at the doctor in shock, I had barely engaged the Nobunaga gang as part of the Defense Squad, and yet the doctor was thanking me – for getting shot. For a second it made no sense, but then suddenly it made perfect sense with aching clarity. I had been there, I had tried to lure the men in their giant combat suits away and maybe I had made a difference in the outcome. 

Doctor Yamazuki only knows that I am a human face. I was there to see that his daughter survived the attack. Maybe that was all that anyone needed, to feel safe knowing a human who tried to help a loved one. 

Humans are social creatures and for many it is hard to see the Brave Police as anything but terrifyingly massive robots with huge weapons. Others outside of the force would see the violence humans in mech suits caused and expect worse should any of the bots suffer a programming glitch. Despite the years the Brave Police had served Nanamagari City people still saw machines wielding weapons that were controlled by human police officers.

Machines have made our lives better and safer. Thanks to our machines and improving technology machines in hospitals saved lives. Machines in industry made our products cheaper and more efficient. But gangs, terrorists and others have used machines to cause crime and destruction. Sometimes it is easier to speak to someone of your own kind. This, I assume, is why Doctor Yamazuki thanks me.

“You are welcome, but it would mean a lot if Deckerd and the others could hear it from you. Would you mind talking to them as well when I am released?”

For a moment worry bordering on fear clouds the doctor’s face and I am positive he will refuse. 

“I – I mean no disrespect, but they look too much like the machines that nearly killed my daughter. I am not comfortable speaking to them, but Yukio is desperate to thank her saviors. If it is alright, I will bring her and we can thank them together.” The doctor give a brave, wan smile to me.

I smile, and I know my eyes are shining like a little kid’s. It makes me happy when my friends get the recognition they deserve. Too many have thanked the human police while shunning Deckerd and the others just because they are machines. They have hearts, just as we do and they respond to kindness similarly. I nod my thanks and the doctor can only leave the room at a fast walk, fleeing from me and the promise he just made.


	2. Watashitachi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Deckerd knows Yuuta is brave, but sometimes even the strongest tremble in the face of fear.

I pace, back struts stiff and shoulder cables taunt as I was programmed to stand, but pacing is something Yuuta taught me when he gave me my heart. I am worried for him now, wondering if he is alright in the hospital. I want to be angry with our human commanders – _keepers_ – but I cannot. They have sealed us within our room locking us down while Boss is unwell. 

I miss Yuuta, when he is here I forget that he is only human. The data never leaves my processors, but he is like us, one of the Brave Police. Superintendent General Seijima is often kind to us, he treats us like we are just others of his officers to be deployed as our skills are needed. But, I am always reminded that he is only human. He is too much like the others of their kind. Sometimes he is unconsciously cruel when using us. He sometimes seems to forget that we are not merely machines.

My processors turn back to our friend – our maker, the small, brave human who gave me my heart and through me the others as well. None of us would be what we have become if it were not for Yuuta. That thought makes me sad though, for we did not protect Yuuta when we should have. The police say Yuuta failed to follow protocol, but they created this scenario for him. Yuuta has always stepped up for us before his police training, and afterwards he began to hide his true self from us, withdrawing his kindness and far too often teary eyes to keep from being seen as weak. 

The humans are unconsciously cruel to him as well as to us. And I can only hope that Yuuta knows we are concerned for him and wish we could be there for him as he has always been for us.

“Are you going to pace all day?” Power Joe asks with his brazen, confident smirk. I know he wants to stir up some trouble that mischief he tries to hide has lit his optics more than usual and I know he will only bring the human commanders down harder on us.

“It had been my objective.” I reply, maintaining my formal posture as Joe’s face slightly falls with my response. I look at him with concern, was Yuuta’s injuries affecting Power Joe’s emotion matrix more than I had realized?

“Seriously?” the yellow member of the Build Team asked weakly sagging.

“But, Yuuta’s being kept from us! Don’t you want to check on him? Doesn’t he do that for us?” Dumpson’s powerful voice rose with each word bringing him to yell, his red fists clenching around the dumbbells he kept with him at all times and his metal teeth gnashing in impotent rage at our situation.

“Yes.” I reply simply, resuming my pacing that Power Joe had interrupted. I pass by the Build Team, slightly ignoring the trio as I paced. I kept my optics from landing on Drill-Boy and tried not to notice his pouting. My steps moved me past Duke and beyond Shadow Maru. All the members of my team kept watching me as I paced, each agitated and furious as I felt for being locked up like criminals for days while our Boss could be dying and thing he is alone.

“What?! Decker, he needs us.” I look to the kung-fu loving yellow build bot and vent a sigh, something else Yuuta taught me long ago. 

“But if we break out and go to him we will cause trouble. Will he be well enough to handle being held responsible for our actions?” My question stops Power Joe, stills Duke as he fidgets and makes Drill-Boy sag further in his seat and I silently feel remorse for their defeated expressions. 

“But if we don’t go to him, who will let him know we care?” Drill-Boy piped up from his chair, making us look at his bright optics and forcing us to think of Yuuta’s sheepish admission of being afraid of doctors from when he was still a child. 

I sighed, thoroughly defeated by my team mates’ will power. “Very well, we will visit Yuuta.”

“Alright!” Power Joe grinned hugely, leading us from the collected desks and chairs of our ‘office’ through a back way I had long forgotten about and out into the brilliant summer night. “Now we can get to the hospital and Yuuta!”

I knew I would regret this, Power Joe and Drill-Boy were far too happy and them happy together usually meant trouble. Still, I could not begrudge their happiness, especially not when I shared their excitement. Together we folded down, took on our alternate modes and raced towards the hospital, the others following right behind us making a convoy towards the hospital that defied our need for stealth in reaching Yuuta. 

Still, my mind buzzed with worries. Would Yuuta be able to be repaired? Would he terminate from his injuries? I had read about human injuries once long ago when Yuuta had been sick as a child. The frailty of our Boss had terrified me then, and even more so now. Would he even survive a single gun shot? Were we racing for sorrow to find that the two shots he had taken had been too much? I wanted to quit thinking, to set my worries aside but I could only remember the image of Yuuta running from our position the armor suits chasing after him and two shots hitting him as he ran with us all too far away to reach him.

‘Please, Yuuta, please be alright.’ The thought lingers in my processors as we pull up to the hospital and realize that without Boss, or any of our human allies, we had no way of getting inside. I huffed, feeling stupid and defeated. Why had I thought visiting him would be easy?

“Decker?” A familiar voice piped up from in front of my hood attracting my scanners’ attention. I stared through thermal scanners in silence before I finally found my voice protocols and spoke, “Azuki? I thought you would still be on your honeymoon.”

The young woman smiles, her light brown hair now cut short and her face pinched with worry. “We just came from visiting Yuuta. He – he looks so frail.” I open my driver’s door to her, welcoming her within my frame for comfort. Her smile falters, sorrow evident in her eyes. “I was so happy when he turned fifteen and grew taller than Kurumi and me. Then he graduated high school a full year early.” She swallows and I worry she might be having trouble breathing but she continues. “Then he became a police officer. We knew he would do great and for the last two years I only heard stories of how much fun Yuuta has had, your adventures together. Now this.”

I remain silent as she speaks, knowing that humans tend to have the strange need to speak when worried I let her, and open my radio to the others, letting them hear her words. Around me the other bots are just as concerned and we all feel the remorse of having failed Boss. “It is my belief that he chose his course of action due to his training. Boss has pulled away from us since becoming an officer it was something that began during his final six months of training.”

My words startle Azuki, her bright eyes turn dark as she slips into thoughts. I know she is thinking hard on my statement, her thumb to her lips as she strives valiantly to refrain from chewing the nail. I remember her once telling me it was a bad habit of hers and this has always amused me, until now. This time I see the habit for a sign telling of how hard this has been on her.

“That would explain his other changes.” She finally replies. “During his police training he applied for room in police housing. I thought he was just reaching the age of wanting to be independent. Then he stopped coming for dinners, he said he did not need to be a burden on Kashiwazaki and me while we were deciding when to marry.” I watch as she looks up to the sky through my windscreen and realize she is looking at a particular window.

“Azuki, would it be alright for me to ask a favor at this time?” I finally break the silence once I have triangulated the window she is looking at. 

“Of course Decker, you have always helped us.” She smiles wanly, fond memories warring with her current worries and fears.

“Thank you. I was wondering if you could go back into the hospital and let Yuuta know that we are here.” I smile internally as she starts finally looking around the parking lot, spotting the others. 

“Wow, you _all_ are here?” She looks to the others a smile suddenly blossoming on her face.

“Yes, Boss has always watched out for us during our repairs. It is only proper that we watch over him during his.” I reply and hear the others give their assents making Azuki grin hugely at us.

“You all are the best friends Yuuta has. Thank you,” She darts from my seat, darting back to the hospital. Once she enters I stand, the others transforming with me while Gun Max gets off his bike and waits for us to regain our feet.

“Glad you came?” Dumpson asks brusquely as he stands beside me. I can only nod. This was a good thing, and any punishment would be worth it. Together we head to the window and wait, watching expectantly as the dark window brightens then opens revealing Yuuta supported by two tall men in white. Azuki stands behind them, hands clasped while hope and worry mingle in her eyes. 

I scan Boss worriedly taking in the bindings around his wounds and the dark circles under his eyes. Seeing him now, six days after his shooting I am amazed at how drastically he has changed. He is thinner, his body gaunt and bearing the first traces of facial hair I have ever seen on him. The image is disturbing. Once more I realize his frailty and for the first time I wonder, what would happen to us, the robots of the Brave Police, should Yuuta perish? 

Several of the city and police officials felt our maintenance costs outweighed the perks of keeping us online. Civilian groups had formed protests in front of headquarters demanding we be shut down. Others wanted us to be turned into normal machines ready for use and able to be shut down when not needed. Still more felt that we brought the violent crimes to our city just because we existed our presence offering a challenge to the powerful criminals in the world.

Only Boss, Superintendent General Saejima, and Toudou-san truly stood up for us. Toudou-san was retiring soon, and Saejima-san would not be in the force for more than a couple decades. He was aging swiftly from the pressures of his work. If only Boss remained, would we be kept online? If Boss died before the others retired would the results be the same? I suppressed a shudder, grateful my thought process took milliseconds, my mouth opening to speak a mere instant after the window opened. “Boss.”


	3. Isshoni

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Facing death is never easy, knowing you do so alone is harder still. Yet despite the lone stand off with death no one it truly alone.

“Yuuta!” I start awake, unaware I had slipped into slumber as my eldest sister barges into my hospital room. I have been here for days, I have lost count of how many since I regained consciousness and soon I will be released. 

“Azuki?” I sit up and attempt to stand, knees buckling from a weakness I cannot shake. “Is everything alright?” I worry, she has been here later than usual and there is no one to escort her home.

“Everything’s fine, but you’ve got visitors,” She smiles brightly, the worry that has aged her since my injuries seems to have lifted away in an instant. 

“Where are they?” My voice turns raspy and my arms once more shake. I should not be this weak! Tears sting my eyes as I try once more to stand and find myself falling once more. This time I know have tried too hard, my arms give out and I begin to fall to the ground knowing that this will hurt. Only I don’t land, I am lifted, strong arms on either side of me bringing me effortlessly to nearly useless legs. “What?”

My eyes land on to orderlies each dressed in pure white one on each side who serve as living crutches to help me stand. 

“Officer Tomonaga, your visitors wish to speak with you now.” One man spoke with a smile and mostly carried me to the window. For a second I tense with fear, they were going to throw me out the window! Then I saw them, bright optics glowing in the night and my fears vanish.

“Deckerd!” I cry out just as he says my name. Once his voice reaches my ears I feel as if I am home. I smile, words suddenly meaningless as I look at my team.

“We wanted to make sure your repairs were going well!” Drill boy finally spoke, the robots all grinning at the choice of words. The orderlies gape and scowl at the choice of words but I don’t care. They, my team, know I do not like hospitals and I am afraid of needles although I will never admit it to anyone not of my team.

“They are taking very good care of me.” I replied, then I felt my eyes fall with shame. “I’m sorry.”

“Yuuta,” Deckerd speaks gently, as he always has, “You saved many lives by luring the Nobunagas away. I am very proud to have you as our boss. Just, next time, let us know what you are planning.” 

I can only nod mutely wishing I was once more up on Deckerd’s shoulder safe on that high perch and knowing nothing would ever touch me there. Instead I sigh, the days of me being a childish burden to my team are over.

“What did they do to you?” Duke asks bluntly, his words making my head snap up in surprise and suddenly I am staring at my team, all of them having the same knowing expression that tells me I cannot mislead them or fib my way out of this. 

“I swore to my trainers that I would never cry out to be saved. I am an adult, I need to act like one.” My voice hardens, and in my head I can hear them, repeatedly admonishing me for my behavior with the bots before becoming a police cadet. I had cried, whimpered, begged to be saved and pleaded to not be left behind. I was a burden to the Brave Police just as I had become a burden to my sisters.

“That was stupid.” Dumpson grumbles, his snort bringing me out of my thoughts.

“What do you mean?” I look between them all confused.

“You may have asked for us to save you, but many times you saved us as well. You are not weak Yuuta, you never have been.” 

“Yuuta,” I cringe at my sister’s voice, she rarely sounds so serious and I find myself feeling like a little kid again. “You will be taking meals with Kashiwazaki and me, and that is final.” I look over my shoulder and realize that my attempt to become less of a burden to others had somehow made me into a bigger one. I nod and smile gratefully then turn back to my team ready to once more become strong for them and be a better partner. Still, despite the newfound joy at knowing I will be with my team again soon, I fear. Who will take care of my team when I die? What will happen to eternal robots with the death of just one mortal?


	4. Yuuki (Courage)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finding the strength to stand tall after falling down is terrifying, yet the smallest beings can carry the most courage.

“Yuuta,” I look up from my desk perched on the chest high wrap around balcony surrounding the Brave Police headquarters where Deckerd and the robots of his team have their desks. Deckerd is standing, looking at me with a strange expression, one that has become more common these months since my return to duty.  
“What is it Deckerd?” I ask brightly, knowing that something is troubling my friend, something that has been growing since I was injured.  
“Why is a new unit being stationed with us?” I look to Deckerd’s face watching the flexible metal bend and crease like skin as he frowns, worry lining his face despite all that he leaves unspoken.  
“The Brave Police Alpha Squad is designed to protect the city alongside our unit. They will train with us, how we move, operate and being capable of acting on duty without getting under your feet.” I reply easily, maybe too brightly, but I have to remain honest without divulging everything. The truth would only make the bots sad.  
“I know this; the Superintendent General explained their function. Yuuta, I am asking why we need a unit trained so in addition to the regular Brave Police who already function admirably beside us in the field.” Deckerd scowls; he hates repeating himself, and hates it more when I force him to do it. I want to tell him, but would he understand?  
“They’re –” I nearly cave until the alert klaxon sounds overhead. We turn in unison, our conversation shelved as we run to the ammo lockers. We gear up swiftly and run to the staging area. The Superintended General is waiting, along with six other units plus the new Alpha Squad. All together there are thirty officers and we all know something bad is happening.  
“Gentlemen,” Sejima begins, “The Nobunaga Gang is returning, they are en route and will be hitting the outskirts within minutes. They killed thirty civilians and three officers their last attack, and nearly cost us a forth.” Our Superintendent sets his steely brown eyes on me tinged with the familiar overprotective fierceness we all feel when any of our own is jeopardized. I want to swallow, to step back and let everyone forget that I had been the weak link. Instead I only stand firm, letting his gaze light on me then shift to the others, they know I could have died that day, know it was one of those miracles that nothing vital was hit.   
“They go down this time. Dispatch is downloading your assault data to your private communicators. Gentlemen, this ends today.” We turn as one, the humans racing down the many ramps to ground level while Deckerd’s unit collapse down into their vehicle forms save for Gun Max riding his massive motorcycle. We regroup outside headquarters and split off into our designated teams. I ride in Deckerd as I fit the monacle-like display over my right eye. Immediately details of our opp begin to scroll down the red Plexiglas eyepiece providing a map overlay displaying each unit’s position and the Nobunaga Gang approaching as little blips on our personal heads up displays.   
Despite the momentary dizziness that comes with viewing the world through one interactive screen that taints the world a bloody red, the monocles have become a major factor in our response times, and have saved several lives since they were introduced the week I returned from sick leave. Now we get to finally put these to their best use, helping up protect our city and our people with all the intel we can get. As we scream down the roadway sirens blazing a small part of me does a giddy fan-boy dance for the cool tech we get to play with.  
The rest of me though feels a new cold-iron weight lodged in my gut. This job is not for the faint of heart, now I finally understand what that term means. Deckerd is running for us, his engine roaring as he continues to accelerate, but I – I just sit here, reading over our data and keeping tabs on the other units. Everyone has checked in, ammo loaded, safeties have been checked and double-checked. Each unit pulls into position and still I only sit while others do everything, and a tiny traitorous bitter-bile tinged nauseated part of me just wants to stay here safe within Deckerd’s cab.   
I want to reach for his door handle, I want to jump out and join the others but, I can’t. I look into the rearview mirror and I see pure, unbridled terror deeper than anything I have ever felt before. As a kid I nearly died on a regular basis, but back then I still thought I was invincible, safe with Deckerd. Now, I know that they were given a heart because of me. They have a mortal’s heart and just like us they are fallible.  
I look past the rearview mirror and see the other bots rise to their feet, leaving behind their vehicle modes. The other officers are clustered near their feet standing like tiny mice at the feet of giants. Mice. Somehow, that thought takes away the fear. We, the human police are little more than mice scurrying under the feet of mechanical giants, we may be mortal and we can be crushed without a care. But, when one falls more will rise. We are the Brave Police. We are the children of Japan. Our ancestors were not broken by the armies of the West, in the long distant days of the Empire. We will not be broken by mere gangs.   
I finally sit tall, unaware until just then than I had hunched in on myself like a wounded animal. Finally, my courage rises and I know I will fight. Fear is still there lurking like the tsunami waiting to devour the shore, but I will not back down. I open the door and jog to my position near my team, my bots. This time I will not be the weak link because now, finally I know how to be strong.

 

He is afraid. I idle silently as fear and terror and so many human emotions I know so well play across his features. He is human, and like all of their kind, he is so fragile. I sigh internally; Yuuta gave me my heart, allowed me to pass this great gift on to others. He gave me purpose, and offered me friends beyond what he himself could offer. He overcame jealousy and insecurity to give me my friends, allies and so much fear by becoming our boss.   
The injuries Yuuta suffered weigh on his mind and heart terribly. That is why he fears, such injuries are not survived by everyone, and now Yuuta realizes that he too is only mortal. That thought chills me. I am afraid to lose Yuuta, and truthfully, we all are. None of us have known a world without Boss, I nearly did and it was terrible.  
I alone remember being designed as a non-sentient police android. I was a mere robot capable of aiding human handlers against criminals bearing massive arms. If not for Yuuta, I would have merely been a weapon. My debt to him is great, Power Joe and Dumpson are getting worried, Boss should have been in place six point two microns ago. Yet still he sits.  
The humans are in place now, and something about how they move catches Yuuta’s attention. In the instant he sees them he straightens and his normally shinning eyes that have dulled over the past weeks suddenly glow as he steps from my cab. Whatever he saw in his fellow officers was enough, now Boss is back. As Yuuta stands at the front of his unit I unfold from my car mode standing tall in my place right behind him.


	5. Tairitsu

A/N: Violence.

~ ~ ~ ~  
We stand, our line spread unbroken across the entrance to the city. The massive robots of the Brave Police stand behind our rows of flashing barricades and the heavy, bristling deploy of armored vehicles. Our human forces and human police interspersed with mech suits and combat drones. Our force is equal to a small army as we wait for the Nobunaga gang to appear.

All too soon the scream of approaching mech engines fills the air, the Nobunaga Gang racing towards us with dire purpose. We watch as the sixteen-mech strong gang tears across the boundary of the city, and straight into our jurisdiction. I nod at Deckerd, sending him forward. He holds up his badge with authority, revolver just to the side and aimed at the power core of the lead mech.

"This is the Brave Police, you are unlawfully entering Nanamagari City limits. Power down and step out of your units, you are under arrest." Deckerd pumps his voice through his speakers, the fiercely clipped words echoing in the night. Deep inside I smile, proud and comforted knowing my team stands with me.

"Ha, no one can stop the Nobunaga Gang!" The lead crimson suit scoffs at us as the massive robotic arm lifts in an insulting one-finger salute. The smaller black and gray suits ranged behind him cackle and jeer at us while arming their massive rifles, readying for the kill.

Power Joe grins from where he stands closest to Deckerd, "Just the answer I wanted to hear." He grins massively as the other bots all rumble their agreement and silently power up their own weapons. Even Deckerd smirks, all mechs nodding their eager desire to ensure the gang never touched another cop again. "Let's party."

From his position at the rear of the assault line Superintendent General Seijima's voice fills the com line, giving us the go ahead to proceed with all necessary force. The unspoken hope that our new, all human, units of the Brave Police would turn the tide of battle fills his voice and to a one we all feel the same silent prayer resonate in the depths of our souls.

Once our orders are received I bark commands to my team, somewhat surprised at the strength and pride filling my voice. I signal Deckered to take command of the bots. As one we commanders of the civil police, tactical forces, Brave Police and Deckerd bellow "Fire!"

Lasers of red and violent green scream across the divide between gang and police. Humans kneel behind thick barricades while our comrades in armor suits and Deckerd's unit charge forward to grapple with the mech suits in close range. I try not to panic as Deckerd races to the fore of the conflict, tackling the red gang leader's suit. Together they crash to the ground, their impact shaking the earth. I flail to keep my footing as smaller mech suits and human police alike fall to the ground.

Deckerd, his hand gun in place, fires six rounds into the Nobunaga gang leaders' suit taking out its power source, weapons array, motor functions and communications array, leaving the human inside trapped and alone.

Despite Deckerd's battle rocking the ground before us, I find myself hemmed in by the other mech suits of the Nobunaga gang. The suits get closer, we scatter. We humans seeming like ants compared to the giant feet stomping over us. I hear screams, cut terribly short as I race further from the mech battle front and turn, just in time to see the captain of my Brave Police human unit stepped on and turned into chunks of unrecognizable jelly.

The instant the gore is revealed I feel my mind snap into focus and all I can do is follow my training. I snap orders that I have no memory of barking, my HUD tracks the battle and I call corrections out as I lead the human unit into position. Our lasers target vulnerable points on the mech suits and slowly, we face the oncoming tide. Roaring fills my ears, my vision is too sharp yet ringed in blackness the skirmish continuing and all I know is the events of each moment, feeling an amnesia consume each moment as it passes.

~ ~ ~ ~  
Later, the dawn slowly brightens and I can finally see all of the Nobunaga gang out of their suits. Each man and woman cuffed and being loaded into a armored police transport. I sigh, too tired to remember that I had been terrified out of my wits only a few short hours ago. Despite my weariness my minds stalls at the realization that five humans could cause such massive destruction and find myself grateful Deckerd had been granted a heart.

Fresh officers patrol the perimeter of the battle site and secure the crime scene. Ambulances with flashing lights stand at the ready as medical crews patch up our wounded. Other officers, those with the strong stomachs cover our dead - or what is left of them. I gag and cough into my elbow then turn to find my bots now that my human teams are being looked after.

"Yuuta," Deckerd speaks lowly, his optics dim. "We lost too many last night."

I can only nod, my tired mind beginning to fog and my adrenaline racking through my blood too swiftly, making me shake. The after effects of the battle leave me sick, hungry, tired, wired and exhausted. I wanted to eat an entire buffet and sleep for a month, but my stomach tells me it could eat nothing.

"Yuuta?" I blink, look up and realize I'm laying down with medics working frantically on my arm. I look to where their hands are and see my sleeve cut away. Above the cut is my belt in a tourniquet I have no memory of placing staunching the bleeding of a massive gaping wound I have no memory of taking. I blink at the wound stupidly before looking up at Deckered hovering anxiously over me.

"What happened?" I ask with a rasp. My mind is too sharp, but blank and I can recall nothing. How odd, I muse, I can remember my first bullet in slow motion, yet I cannot recall this wound at all. The thought spirals down with the morphine and I can only wonder before darkness claims me why my arm is sprouting purple vines ...  
~ ~ ~ ~

"...they coated their bullets with a toxin. He has blood poisoning." Dr. Ishikazawa stated calmly once he had finished checking the young officer. "We have no means of saving his arm, but his blood is being processed as we speak. He will lose everything from the left elbow down, and, if he wishes it, with new technology imported from North Tokyo's Cybernetic Division we can keep him in the force."

"He wishes it." Deckerd spoke softly, his optics locking into the doctor's eyes. The Brave Police officer stood in the unit's office, a makeshift medical ward stood in the center near Yuuta's raised desk to put the humans on the bot's eye level. "Yuuta has always wanted to be an officer and our friend. If he is no longer capable of serving those duties he will feel that he has failed us."

The doctor nodded somberly, "Very well, but there will be side effects."

"Understood." Deckerd spoke lowly, knowing in his heart that this was only the beginning of a long journey to come.  
~ ~ ~ ~

I feel hot, burning. Everything is so hot. My lips are dry, cracked. I am parched. All around me I see a desert, moving dunes and whipping winds fill the arid landscape. The ground shifts beneath my feet like walking on bullet casings and I stumble. The sands sink and I fall - I wonder where I am. It's cold and dark and far too silent. There is no temperature, no wind, no sound. I call for Deckerd, but I am mute. I want to cry but my eyes are dry ... like a desert - I feel hot, burning. Everything is so hot ...  
~ ~ ~ ~

"His fever is breaking. He will be coming around in the next couple days." Words fill my head, but I cannot hear them. I can sense movement around me, like blips on a screen. Something is telling me where everyone is, how far away they are, who is there and if they are armed.

"Heartbeat rising. Blood pressure spiking." A too calm voice fills the silence, calling out vitals and I wonder why I'm floating in a hospital.

"Yuuta, we are here." Deckerd's words feel like a warm blanket sheltering my heart. I relax, and suddenly realize and can feel him; Deckerd and the other bots are all here with me. Knowing that I am not alone makes me smile, I think I smile as darkness once more envelops me and I fade into unconsciousness.

I think have been awake for a while, for some reason I'm not sure if I just woke up or if I have been staring at the ceiling for hours. I blink, knowing that I am dreaming as the office ceiling seeming too sharp and in focus to be real. I can hear the whisper of the air conditioning, pencils shushing across paper, pens scraping across forms. I can hear conversations, but my ears tell me it is silent save for the muted office noises and the incessant beeping of the machine pulsing with my heartbeat.

"This is the second time you have woken up in a hospital, Yuuta." I look up to the commissioner blankly. My mind reels as the strange dream I thought I was in suddenly becomes my reality. I am in a hospital bed in the middle of the Brave Police office. I look around, and see the massive desks my bots use filled with each member of my team. Around me on my level the support crew and human officers silently bustle around the transparent privacy screen isolating me within the mini hospital.

I sit up, all too aware of everyone pointedly not looking at me. "Sir?"

"We lost nearly one hundred officers in the Nobunaga fight. They had tainted their bullets. A toxin killed most of the others. You, Yuuta look at me, you lost an arm."

I flinch and look to both my hands. I have two hands - only one is black. I only realize I've thrown up when I desperately gasp for air and gag on my own vomit. A nurse is standing beside me, a hand on my back while I hack up the vileness I inhaled. I look to my hand - my black hand. It's made of something I don't recognize, like a blend between kevlar and metal. I can feel with it, the cold bar on the hospital bed I lean out of. My eyes slowly trace down from the clenching fingers denting the metal bar to my wrist. There is a strange ball connector holding my hand to my arm and the strangeness continues. Tendons that normally flickered underneath the skin as my fingers moved now stood exposed on the metal-hybrid arm until it reached my elbow. Another ball joint met my eyes and I fight the urge to gag, my chest spasming between the need to and repulsion of getting sick once more.

"I want a mirror." I blurt as I stare at the strange seam between flesh and metal fabric at my shoulder. The shoulder is black along with the rest of my arm and angry red lines surround it etching the border between flesh and fake.

"Here," The nurse hands me the mirror, her voice too calm and understanding. I look in, expecting something. Instead I only see my own face - then I notice my hair. I turn my head, tilting my chin towards my fake shoulder and see the same black metal-hybrid fabric embracing my skull. My real hand hesitates, then reaches up and tentatively touches my head. It's real, I gulp and trace the black intrusion from across the entire back of my skull down my neck to vanish between my shoulder blades somewhere in my back.

"I thought I lost an arm." I look up to the commissioner in confusion.

"You did," A serious voice spoke up. A woman in a white coat I have never seen before brushes into my little sanctuary of unease, "The arm was lost due to infection and necrosis. The toxin the Nobunagas used was a nasty thing. This arm," She gestured to the black thing I refused to look at, "is the main outward alteration we were forced to make. A processor, radio, internal communications net, data hub port and internal HUD implants were necessary to integrate you fully with Deckard's team."

I can only blink at her, the words she uses passing in and out of my head faster than I can register them. "In Japanese, please?" I ask slowly, wondering if she had slipped into English or some other equally foreign language.

She sighs and sits in a chair I didn't know was even there, "it means the back of your skull was cut open and your brain modified. You now can reach your team without needing an external radio. Since our minds do not work like a computer a processor was implanted to translate your orders into radio signals and control your new arm. You will need training on how to function with your new implants before you can return to duty, even after rehabilitation."

"What did you mean by a HUD?" I ask, thinking of my monocle display I wear during missions.

"I think this is best as a demonstration, and one that can wait." She stands with a small smile. "How does a shower sound?"

"Won't I short circuit?" I ask aghast, and feel immediately like a fool when she laughs.

"No," her smile widens, "You are still completely waterproof."

I nod, a shower does sound great. I try to stand and for a terrifying panicky moment nothing works. My normal arm flails, my feet slide uselessly across the floor and suddenly I am on my back looking up at Deckerd's worried optics. Without asking he holds his hand out to me, finger curved over and around me like a safety net while never touching me.

"May I be of assistance?" Deckerd asks in his painfully tight professional tone. I swallow tears I had promised long ago to never again shed and simply nod.

"Please." I feel weak, useless and broken. Everywhere I look I see privacy screens set up to keep human eyes from prying. Inside, though, I know the others are staring, pointing, whispering. they are saying how many resources I have used up since becoming a cop. How poorly I perform. They want me out of my position with Deckerd, and maybe they are right to.

"You have become a hero across Japan." Deckerd murmurs in a voice pitched just for me. "The news has played your actions from Kyushuu to Hokkaido and from Hawaii to Seol. All of Japan and the lands around us know you are very brave."

I cling to Dekerd's hand with all my feeble strength and cling with equal tenacity to his words. The loss of my arm is not real yet, as if it has happened to someone else in a bad dream I cannot awake from. And yet, I am afraid to awaken if this is a dream. I fear a darkness waiting to swallow me whole, and all I can do is nod at Deckerd's words and pretend I am still as brave as he believes me to be. For now, that is all I have. My Brave Police bots and their faith in me, that is all I have ever needed - it will be enough to get me through this as well. I believe in this , I have to.


	6. Hitori de tatte (to stand alone)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yuuta's recovery is going nicely, but new realizations make him uneasy about the future of Deckerd and the others of the Brave Police.

I know I am staring. I should be ashamed, but I can’t stop looking. They are unreal, monstrous. They stand before my team, the team my second Junchiro leads as I work through rehabilitation and learn the use of my new arm, the cyborg police officers of Mega Tokyo. They are all from the AD Police, the elite policing force tasked to deal with Mega Tokyo’s rogue androids and boomers, similar to the Brave Police, constantly facing so many mechanized and giant opponents.

The men and _women_ of the force stand before me. Some look so completely human that I can’t tell they have lost body parts. Others, others look completely alien. Metal hands, exposed cables that look too much like the muscles that should be kept inside our bodies stand out. I feel sick, and know my matte black neo-Kevlar composite arm looks tame in comparison. Somehow, it doesn’t make the transition to cybernetic replacements any easier.

“You’re looking a little green there, kid.” One of the women nods to me. Her hair is long and silvered, her metal arm scored with the police battles she has fought in her time. “Don’t tell me you aren’t grateful we came all the way out here at your commissioner’s request?”

“No ma’am.” I shake my head vehemently. “I am grateful, and honored. I am just – ”

“Feeling a little lost?” A man, McNichol, offers and I can only nod.

“We saw some footage of the fight with the Nobunaga gang. You did well.” The woman, Masalo, nods at me. From the looks of her fellow officers I get the feeling she doesn’t make complements very often, or lightly.

“Thank you, but the Bots should get the most credit. They did all the work.” I reply.

“But, their just AIs.” The words are repeated amongst the AD police and I realize that they have only dealt with their Boomers and androids. They have never met a bot with a heart.

“Not to us.” I reply softly and know I made the right decision when they only snort and shake their heads. I am afraid of telling them the truth, and fear that if I did someone would try to take their hearts away.

_Reformatted. Deckered first surprised me with that statement six months after I had first accidentally found him. At the time, we both had thought that he would go away, and never come back. I had cried terribly when I had to think of losing him. Watching him getting reformatted, his on-board data erased and overwritten. Is that the pain my friends feel when they see me in the hospital? Is that the pain I force them to suffer through every time I get hurt?_

The thoughts ebb and flow as the AD police turn as one in a show of precision I once envied. That precision is something my Brave Police could do even without their hearts …

_No heart, BP-301, a crane. The great robot had stood without a heart, only a machine. When the build team had first been introduced they had been little more than powerful machines._

Is that what I will become? A police officer composed of bits of flesh and wires programmed into being an organic machine? If that is my fate, what would happen to my heart? The enveloping anguish reminds me of saying farewell to the Deckerd I had known as he underwent reformatting.

I couldn’t imagine Deckard without a heart. It would be devastating. _I_ would be devastated. Just as Deckard would be devastated if I were reformatted and lost my heart as well. As I look at the officers I realize I am terrified: I am not afraid for myself so much, but I am afraid of what will happen to my team when I die, when I get so injured that prosthetics will no longer save me – for when it is me that has become the machine.

They are given so much freedom based solely on the life and presence of a single mortal, and I have lost too much. My false hand clenches with a groan of new plastic. For a heartbeat I am elated – I didn’t have to focus on the movement, it felt natural. Then my heart plummets and my stomach sinks like a cold leaden weight. Will the force still accept me if I am more machine than man?

The officers head towards the training room and I follow, pensive with reoccurring doubts. My bots must be led properly when I am gone. Not abused due to my absence; the death of a single mortal. Once in the training room I begin my lessons on how to survive with a cybernetic prosthetic and I realize the brutal truth: I am no longer truly human.

 

“Yuuta, it’s only been two months. Are you sure you are ready for duty?” Superintendent General Saejima asks from his desk, shocks of white hair at his temples show the years that have passed since I first met him as a boy.

“I am sure,” I nod with a bow. I am desperate to get back with my bots. Seeing the AD Police, all their scars. I saw how broken their minds and hearts had become in the line of duty. I will never be like them! I will never let the darkness destroy me, or the heart that gave Deckerd life.

“Very well,” Saejima frowns pensively. “But, before you regain your post with them you must learn – the Ultimate Commanding Wave!” He stands, left arm swinging as if readying to lob a fast pitch. “Go!”

I can’t help it, I know Superintendent is serious, but I can only laugh. He scowls and I laugh harder.

“Yuuta! You must focus! This is of utmost importance.” He scowls and I finally reign in my laughter. This will at least get a rise from my bots. I nod with a vehemence I can’t quite feel and stand straight. With my most serious expression I wind my new arm swiftly in circles and point ahead of me: “Go!”

“Excellent. You must use this every time you go on mission!” He stands proudly and leads the way to the Brave Room. I can hear them, my bots. I can hear Deckerd admonishing Drill Boy. Power Joe and Dumpson are laughing over something. Without thinking my mind switches on my communications implant and I can hear them! In awe, I stop walking to just focus on everything I never heard from my team.

“But Deckerd! I was using that!”

“These pencils are for work, not – what are you doing?”

 _“Will we get Yuuta back?”_ Drill boy asks along the comm.

 _“I do not know.”_ Deckerd replies lowly, almost brokenly, _“They have not told us anything since I moved him to get his shower after his surgery.”_

 _“Would anyone care about us if he did?”_  Dumpson asked darkly. _“They sure haven’t had any work for us since Boss got hurt – Just like last time.”_

I forced my mind from the communications net and looked harshly at the commissioner’s back. “Here we are, they have been anxious to see you as well.” As he speaks I realize that the communications took less time than it took the superintendent to take two steps toward the door.

“And have they been keeping up with their assignments?” I ask as innocently as I can muster. The sudden sweat on his brow does little to comfort me.

“Ah, I am glad you brought this up!” He recovers quickly as my eyebrow twitches. “They have been catching up – on their – duty reports! Yes, they have done superbly at maintaining their reports.”

“You mean the ones they submit via email?” I ask, suddenly I remember the massive computers and behemoth monitors everyone used when I was a child, back when I first met Deckerd. Now everything had flat screens and the bots were no longer forced to sit a bot-sized desks to fill out paper reports. Everything was digital now.

“Actually yes,” Superintendent swiftly opened up the door, “I brought you a visitor!” He announces gaily as he steps in without the courtesy of knocking – he knocked on the doors of each and every human officer he interacted with. Suddenly I was angry.

“Thank you, sir.” I bow politely, and nearly smile as he flinches. “I believe my team has to catch me up on their _backlog of reports._ ” I bow again and shut the door on the commissioner.

“Yuuta!” Everyone choruses as they see me. Their bright, electric optics land on me happily. _“Look at his arm, the cybernetics have integrated nicely.”_

 _“He looks better this way, more like us.”_ Dumpson’s voice butts in over Power Joe’s.

 _“Do you think he missed us?”_ Drill Boy asks, and somehow I can tell he was asking Deckerd.

“Of course I missed you. I missed you all.” I look at Drill Boy as I speak then to Power Joe, “Thank you, I’m afraid everyone else pretends my arm looks normal. They don’t know how to look at me anymore. I’m glad you like it.” I smile weakly, a small tendril of happiness seeping through the melancholy I suddenly find myself in as they slowly gape at me.

 _“Did they really keep you from working?”_ I ask on the comm line, projecting to Dumpson but well aware they all can hear me.

_“Are you kidding? They slammed the doors, we’ve been lock inside since you woke up and they didn’t even let us go on patrol while you were hurt! They wanted us to be with ‘our handler’.”_

I smiled at them, letting my anger be translated through the comm in a wave of static. “I think I have learned to read you better since I was a kid.” My slight smirk belies the rising fury I hold within. My team, my friends, every one of them was _made_ to fight crime and protect our city. Yet when I am injured they are locked away like criminals. It makes me feel sick.

 _“Yuuta,”_ Deckerd’s voice has always made me feel safe, now over the comm line directly into my head I have never felt safer. “ _After the Nobunagas’ defeat we are in more danger than ever. With their fall others will try to gain dominance. If we are not out there our city will be in danger.”_

I nod silently, _“I know,”_ I take a deep breath, paste a big smile on my face and look at my team expectantly, “Brave Police! Move out!” I bellow as best as I can. As the bots move they talk at human speed out loud between themselves. It’s all inane, the simple mindless chatter that I have always known. Inside their comms though I find a new set of minds I never knew existed.

 _“We need a guard on Yuuta until he is comfortable with his prosthesis.”_ Deckerd orders calmly.

I nod slightly as I climb into Deckerd’s open passenger side door. The police car he transforms into peels out of the office and I can only smile. This is where I belong. Somehow I think my bots can sense me, they seem happier. I think, I can feel them too. That realization makes my small smile broaden into a huge grin.

 _“Can I work with Drillboy?”_ I ask, knowing the smallest of the bots is always trying to be as good as the others, despite the fact that he is great on his own.

 _“Can I Deckerd?_ ” Drillboy’s voice crackles through our radio, his voice eager and sincere. I can almost see him dancing in place with excitement, an emotion I share.

Hours later, our energy spent on patrolling the city and aiding to catch the petty criminals that have crossed our paths, we return to the station. When we arrive I have a plan. My team, my friends will never be ignored because of me again. I think back to their worry from my times in the hospital. They are police officers, they are the bots of the Brave Police. They will never be treated like criminals locked in their office in lieu of a cell.

Once I reach my desk I pull up the Brave Police charter and begin the arduous task of rewriting our codes and bylaws to allow my team their freedom to serve their duties as independent AI operatives. The wording makes me shudder, my friends are not artificial in any way, but no one else, save our closest friends seem to notice or care.

 _“I can’t reach Yuuta, he’s just sitting there!”_ Drillboy’s worried voice along the shared communications line draws me from my work. As I sit up, I know its late and suddenly I realize I have been lost in my work to the point that my team is now standing over me. Instantly I am grateful my laptop is angled away from them. I don’t want them to know what I am doing; I know they will not agree.

 _“Sorry, guys! I think I got caught up catching up.”_ I smile at them, they smile back, all relieved though Deckerd’s silence tells me that at least he is not convinced.

 _“You need to keep this line open and monitored at all times, Yuuta. We have this connection now, you will never come to harm with us around again.”_ I know Deckerd’s words are meant to be a promise, but I also know they are a lie. He wants to protect me from encounters that landed me in the hospital like the first time, when I stupidly refused to let them know what I was doing. But this last time? I was shot during a street war, hit and unnoticed.

Next time? The thought chills me, a cold unease freezing down my spine. I don’t want to die. _“I will, I promise.”_ Deckerd and I lock eyes, his blue, electric eyes boring into my brown eyes of flesh and blood. We both know my words are an empty promise. Someday either I will choose not to or won’t be able to comply. When that happens my bots will have to move on without me, and this time they will not become prisoners of their own office. This I know is a promise I _can_ keep.

 

“Yuuta’s hiding something.” Deckerd spoke slowly, fingers hoding his chin in thought. Together, the bots of the Brave Police rested together. Powered down, their circuits and wires forming their secret local network where thoughts and emotions flowed freely. Here, inside their processors no one could listen in, they were safe.

Deckerd was worried about his friend, as he seemed to be so often lately. They all worried for Boss. Yuuta getting shot twice scared Deckerd to his base programming, the thught of Yuuta getting hurt again hurt his heart. Still, Yuuta was not being himself.

“I think he got scared last time, real scared.” Dumpson rumbled, electric eyes slitted in concern. “That kid’s been hurt in a lotta ways, and he ain’t taking this last one too well.”

“Do you think he’ll quit?” Drillboy’s scared optics looked up at the others, his face pensive in thought. All optics tracked to the single door leading to Yuuta’s on-base quarters.

“No,” Shadow Maru replied with a calmness that beilied the others’ concern. “Yuuta will never quit, but now he understands.” The others sensed the silent ninja’s pain. The abuse and destruction of Kagerou, Sadow Maru’s brother still ached along their digital connection and hurt them all.

“Understands what?” Drill-boy asked softly, he had just been promised to be Boss’s guard and partner, he didn’t want to lose this chance just yet.

Deckerd sighed, “Yuuta finally understands that with us, he is always in danger of losing his life.”

Drill-boy felt his wires burn, as if the resistance had been turned up to high. He had never thought of Boss, of Yuuta, as human. The reminder that their friend was so fragile scared him. All of them had had bits and pieces replaced over the years, but with Yuuta, he could never go back to original parts.

And that meant. Drill-boy shivered in fear: All humans had one thing in common: Eventually, they die.

 

Arms crossed behind me I stand before the police comissioner, board of directors, investors. People who hold financial stakes in our successes and stand to lose the most for our failures.

I am unwaivering. They fidgit. Only the comissioner is as steady as I. Only us and the few military men sitting at the table hold perfectly still. The military presence worries me. I fear my friends being sent off to war, or worse, discover more bots have been made and forced to fight.

Suddenly a cold chill cascades down my spine. Did any of them have a choice? Deckerd, Dumpson, McCrane, Power Joe, Drill Boy…when they were constructed were they ever asked if this was what they wanted to do?

“Tomonaga,” Super Intendent speaks slowly, wire framed eyeglasses gleam sinister light in the dim room.

My shoulders stiffen, my replacement arm aches at its connection point. A line of burning ice that freezes my muscles and bone at each attachment. “Sir.”

“Deckerd and all robot officers of the Brave Police are held in trust for city defense and policing efforts. This is for the good of all citizens. We must maintain our greatest assest in protecting our lives and livelyhoods from mechanized threats. Yet, your proposal would have us relinquish our control over our assets. Is it your desire to deprive our city of the security you have been instrumental in forming?”

I swallow nervously as the superintendent speaks. I knew this was what I was going to face when I reworked the Brave Police Charter. “Sir, the curent charter holds all robotic units of the Brave Police as items for defensive purposes with only the human controller, code-named ‘Boss ‘, having authority over the robot units.”

“Sirs,” I stare at each face and in many see the lingering shadows of fear nearly dying etches into the eyes staring back at me. “‘In the eventuality that ‘Boss’ should fall his second in command shall take over for the interim.’ There is no safeguard for the Brave Police in the eventuality that Boss and second are killed in the line of duty. To ensure the greatest productivity of the Brave Police forces and to safeguard the city I am asking that Deckerd be granted co-commander status independent of human control to be activated in emergency situations.”

“What of tampering?” One pencil thin man askes, in his raspy voice.

“That is very difficult.” Superintendent Saejima speaks up, “Deckerd and all robots of the Brave Police are endowed with a super AI and an emotional cortex that enables them to behave with near-human levels of empathy and compassion. They are the police of our city, so this is their city. They do not fight evil to save their masters, they fight evil to save their friends.”

Saejima stands, hands on hips he looks tough, powerful and utterly ridiculous. “Tomonaga is correct! Our Brave Police are at the brink of failure due to our oversight. Deckerd is the commanding officer of the robot force, but only of the robotic units. By approving this proposal we give him the ability to safeguard his units from abuse should our facilities be overrun.”

The room falls into a deadly silence. The AD Police had their systems hacked, and hundreds of cyborg and legal boomer units were destroyed. The human casualties had been astronomical. Other cities have suffered similar hostilities from terrorists and extremist groups. My insides twist uncomfortably at the thought of that happening here – to my sisters.

 _“We are here, Yuuta. And, thank you.”_ Deckerd’s voice sounds along the implanted communications array in my head. Despite the ache of cold synthetic parts against my flesh and blood, I am grateful and _almost_ smile. Almost, but in this room there is nothing to smile about. My friends need more protection, and I will not – cannot be with them forever.

The silence stretches on. The committee will debate my position. Distantly, from outside I can hear the picketers rallying. One side cries to quit wasting city funds on the Brave Police, the other to protect their robot guardians. Until a verdict is determined I stand between my friends and the potential for them to lose their hearts. Despite staning in a room full of men I feel I have finally learned what it is like to stand alone.

 


End file.
